Music by Adam Levin | Poem by Joe Lobell
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Joe Lobell (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

"Really cool. Jazzy and advanced. The poem framed by the music. Very hip rendition. Exhilarating. I forgot how good the poem is. Your feeling musical exposition (not backdrop but surrounding) multiplies the poem. Your reading is, in a nutshell, cool. Makes me want to do a full album with you (a big project I know) of my poems and your musical expositions and turning the album into a show."
- Joe Lobell

(Full-length) 'Islands':
I. Pandora's Box (including 'Modern Mind')
II. Needle's Eye
III. Testament
soundcloud.com/levin-collab/islands-modern-mind

(Condensed) 'Islands Suite':
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-suite

Islands, Part One: Pandora's Box (including 'Modern Mind')

I. Pandora's Box (including 'Modern Mind')
II. Needle's Eye
III. Testament

Music by Adam Levin | Lyrics by Joe Lobell
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Joe Lobell (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)
Arranged, produced & performed by Adam Levin | Engineered by Jay Mark

As separate tracks:
I. Pandora's Box (w/'Modern Mind')
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-one-modern-mind
II. Needle's Eye 
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-two-needles-eye
III. Testament
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-part-three-testament

(Condensed) 'Islands Suite':
soundcloud.com/adamlevin/islands-suite

Movement One ('Pandora's Box') resembles a slightly twisted piano concerto, Two ('Needle's Eye') a piano in solitary confinement, and Three ('Testament') an electric guitar sneak attack....with jazz, classical and rock elements forming the erratic atmosphere. Or a lengthy Rorschach test with no correct answer. Using a roadmap and compass, the first movement is marked by themes and variations, the second hosts a development with thematic signposts at the entrance and exit gates, and the third reflects them all back at you in a funhouse mirror.

Joe Lobell’s poem ('Modern Mind') in 'Pandora’s Box' was written independent of the music, and vice versa, yet almost magically fits that music’s mood, pace and duration (right down to the poem’s own references to “islands”.)

"Lovely! I'm enjoying listening to this immensely. Who can resist such subtlety of emotion and such powerful imagination? The music has a Personality and it's a very attractive one....really great writing and playing...the sound quality is stunning, crisp clean and wonderfully dynamic."
- On-Reflection

"Really cool. Jazzy and advanced. The poem framed by the music. Very hip rendition. Exhilarating. I forgot how good the poem is. Your feeling musical exposition (not backdrop but surrounding) multiplies the poem. Your reading is, in a nutshell, cool. Makes me want to do a full album with you (a big project I know) of my poems and your musical expositions and turning the album into a show."
- Joe Lobell, poet ('Modern Mind') (1951-2019)

"Portraying issues of human isolation and connection is 'Islands', one of Adam’s most challenging and invigorating works to date. If Joe Lobell's poetry in 'Modern Mind' exhorts the contemporary artist to dig a well of inspiration in the morass of modern culture, Adam's magnum opus engages in a bit of seriously playful one-upmanship, daring the listener to keep up with him as he takes us on a rollercoaster ride through an apparently haphazard collection of themes that is ultimately revealed to be an intricately balanced construct, bringing order out of chaos just as a kaleidoscope wrings symmetrical beauty from broken glass. Joe tells us each individual is 'an island in a universe of islands'; Adam shows us how all those islands are connected."
- Peter Stoller

Islands

(live recording)

Adam Levin, lead vocal & piano | Ellen Weiss, vocal

Music by Brian Wilson | Lyrics by Tony Asher

God Only Knows (live recording)

Music by Tomas Stark & Adam Levin / Lyrics by Adam Levin 
(c)(p) Tomas Stark & Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

John Eyre, vocals
Tomas Stark, guitars & synthesizers
Adam Levin, piano & keyboards

Produced by Tomas Stark & Adam Levin
Engineered by Tomas Stark, John Weathers & Jay Mark

Think of Us with Kindness

Still

Music by Adam Levin / Lyrics by Elena Rye Pellicciaro & Adam Levin 
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Elena Rye Pellicciaro (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

Wendy Boulding, vocal
Adam Levin, keyboards

This song owes its existence to a poem by Elena Rye that I happened to hear her recite. Despite the poem’s lack of meter, it immediately suggested a musical form to me and lent itself to lyrical adaptation. Using the poem as a guide and structure, I composed music directly from it, editing and tailoring the poem into lyrics and song form without sacrificing essential content (although Elena is the ultimate judge of that!) Some music derived from words in the poem proved even more effective and emotional without them and became instrumental passages, further demonstrating that poetic and lyrical forms and criteria can be as different from each other as poetry and music are.

In this rendition, my musical collaborator Wendy Boulding contributed to its pacing, phrasing, and ebb and flow, in addition to her vocal performance.

Do You Feel It?

Music by Peter Stoller & Adam Levin / Lyrics by Peter Stoller 
(c)(p) Peter Stoller & Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

My Old Girlfriend

Music by Peter Stoller & Adam Levin / Lyrics by Peter Stoller 
(c)(p) Peter Stoller & Adam Levin (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)



Our Perfect Love

Music by Adam Levin & Wendy Boulding / Lyrics by Wendy Boulding 
(c)(p) Adam Levin & Wendy Boulding (Different Drum Music / ASCAP)

So Alive

Say It

Adam Levin songwriting collaborations with Wendy Boulding ('So Alive', 'Say It'), Joe Lobell ('Islands' Part One: 'Pandora's Box' w/'Modern Mind'), Elena Rye Pellicciaro ('Do You Feel It?'), Tomas Stark ('Still') & Peter Stoller ('My Old Girlfriend', 'Our Perfect Love', 'Let It Go'), and performance collaboration with Ellen Weiss ('God Only Knows')

Levin Collaborations

Popular tracks